This years adition to the camp is a Tower, All the pieses are assembled and biult off the back of The Bus BetsyDuck. The bus is Jacked up and sitting on Blocks at about 75% of the Weigh. The Tower is not Directly Load bearing on the bus, the 4 post legs bear the weight to the ground. and the upper deck is sharing some weight to the Bus via a center post. The roof is made of a 10foot SatDish. I welcome questions, and Can explain it better after it is assembled this weekend. . more photos later. [/code]

.......................................................................................Oh yeah, this year I was totally twerping out at the fence. ~Lonesombri

knowmad: A carraige return ("enter") between the [/image][image] will make the photos stack up on each other, instead of making some sort of long whatever.
Easier to read, fewer cranky old eplayans telling you how to post. Win win, as they say.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

Ugly Dougly wrote:So is the main reason for uniting the tower and bus: to make the tower more stable and safe?

Yeah, and to take advantage of the Deck on top of the bus, it has a railing and it's weight load would be independant of the tower, and upper deck. So the upper deck and inverted Satilite dish are the only load to the tower legs.

theCryptofishist wrote:knowmad: A carraige return ("enter") between the [/image][image] will make the photos stack up on each other, instead of making some sort of long whatever.Easier to read, fewer cranky old eplayans telling you how to post. Win win, as they say.

s'ry,, no Return key on this deck ( fer real) some times I pick up and paste one(CR) as a work around but was lazy, strangely enough the character selector app. doesn't work for this. so sorry 'bout htat and the Lisdexic spelling mistakes. AJFTR, I Like my eplayans old and Cranky, and if they like to tell me how to doing something, bonus entertainment factor.

.......................................................................................Oh yeah, this year I was totally twerping out at the fence. ~Lonesombri

knowmad wrote: The bus is Jacked up and sitting on Blocks at about 75% of the Weigh.

That keeps the bus from rocking (too much) and rocking the tower. It cant be solid to the ground or then the tower, witch will sway will smash itself against the bus again and again weakening the whole structure.The tower legs are anchored wtih 2 1/2 foot rebar, through 3/4 inch ply wood squares, 2 1/2 on side.

.......................................................................................Oh yeah, this year I was totally twerping out at the fence. ~Lonesombri

I would skip the plywood plates with rebar. That will epic fail. Instead drive a hefty width of rebar straight in under each leg so the scaffolding doesn't walk, like 3/4 inch 3 foot driven 2 feet in. Then get some auger stakes and drive them in near each leg. Cross brace with aircraft cable and turnbuckles of appropriate size.

It would be good for someone with training in trusses and physics to actually do some figuring and determine the load and forces involved.

Post some dimensions and more details
if you want people to use math and check
that it will be OK. Or at least, give you an
idea if you should use guy wires or how
many people can be up there before the
tubing buckles.

What kind of steel tubing are you using?
How are the cross bars and wires going to
be attached to the tubing?

I would be most worried about the tower
collapsing if too many people are on the
top platform. The wind loading is substantial,
but I think, ultimately, less stress on the tower
than five 250 pound people standing on top.
And it's very bad if the tower falls over in the
wind and bonks someone on the head, but it's
probably much much worse if the tubing
buckles and you have a bunch of people fall
twenty feet.

So I think it's important to do the math and
be more sure it will work before you let anyone
besides your team go on it one at a time.

to the point about tubing buckling under weight - i think your bigger problem could be breaks at your welding points unless you're expert welders. i would worry about that before tubing buckling. take care, also, to make sure that your tubes won't sink into the playa - that's an argument for plywood feet.

I wish you the best of luck with your design. I tried to figure out a way to have a tower above my van similar to yours, but after much thinking and question asking, it just doesnt seem worth it. This year I will have a tower made of pallet racking a few feet from my van so I can still walk on top, and have a plank running across to the tower. It seems a little safer this way and much less work than trying to build a tower on a vehicle, and you get an extra X amout of feet freed up on your bus w.o a tower on the end.